Exhibition preview: 'Finding Light in New Places'

Photographer captures her search for light in time of personal darkness

Jim Fischer Assistant Editor @feeshalive

Dru Batte has been reaching for her camera “like I'm reaching to pick up pieces” in the wake of the death of her friend, Daniel Sebastian Loper.

Shooting the images that will be featured in her exhibition, “Finding Light in New Places,” which opens this weekend at 934 Gallery (and will remain on view through Aug. 26), has been an “unintended process of grief for myself,” Batte said.

“Daniel's death, unbeknownst to me, instigated this exhibition,” she continued. “This is my way to frantically reach for a camera and find something to remind myself that I'm alive and I got out of bed today.”

There is physical light represented in all of these images but, as the title suggests, there's a metaphor at work as well.

“I believe I was subconsciously looking for the light, which, to be honest, I still have not found much of,” Batte said. “But I'm gathering it, the little bits and places you can find some light.”

Photography has kept Batte engaged with her community, and, she said, the notion of interaction versus isolation plays out in the work, literally, in the case of one interactive piece, which invites interaction with it, but only when also interacting with another person.